1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector in which a locking member locks an electrical connector terminal accommodated in a housing body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In vehicles or the like, a wide variety of electrical connectors are used to connect wire harnesses electrically. There is one of those electrical connectors to lock an electrical connector terminal accommodated in a terminal accommodating chamber with a spacer as a locking member.
For a concrete example, there is an electrical connector disclosed in Japanese Non-examined Patent Publication No. 2000-252000. In such an electrical connector, the electrical connector terminal is accommodated into the connector housing from a rear side thereof, and the spacer (retainer) is inserted into the connector housing through a spacer insertion hole provided on a side wall thereof. A removal prevention portion of the inserted spacer engages the connector terminal to lock the connector terminal.
The spacer has a pair of holding pieces in addition to the removal prevention portion. Each of the pair of holding pieces is connected through a connecting portion, of which an end is plate-shaped, and has a substantially horseshoe section resiliently. When attaching to the connector housing, the spacer is so located as to sandwich a housing body from above and below.
A locking groove for engaging a locking projection of the housing body is provided on each opposite face of the pair of holding pieces. When the spacer is inserted into the connector housing and the removal prevention portion of the spacer engages the connection terminal, the spacer is to be locked.
Now, in the above-described connector, the spacer is inserted into the connector housing, being attached thereto to lock the connection terminal. In detaching the spacer inserted into the connector housing, for example, suppose that the connector housing comprises the housing body which accommodates the connection terminals in a longitudinal direction of the housing body and a hood portion with open front surrounding the connector housing with a specific space. Additionally, the spacer is inserted through the side wall of the housing body and attached thereto. In this case, an end portion of an ejecting tool is inserted into a space between the hood portion and the housing body in a longitudinal direction of the housing body to engage with an ejecting portion provided in a middle of a connecting portion of the spacer. After engaging, the end portion of the ejecting tool is shifted toward a rear side of the direction of the spacer insertion to release the engagement of the spacer with the housing body and eject the spacer.
However, an object of the space between the hood portion and the housing body is to connect to the other connector electrically by means of, for example, fitting another connector housing into the space. Thus if the space is too narrow to insert the ejecting tool and shift it toward a rear side in a direction of the spacer insertion, it is difficult to release the engagement between the spacer and the housing body.